On The Move Jacobson`s Walks Its Own Trail As It Stalks Boca`s Political And Retail Jungle.

February 9, 1992|By DAVID ALTANER, Business Writer

To Jacobson Stores Chairman John R. Fowler, a department store is culture.

``It`s going to provide a cultural attitude,`` he said in a recent interview. ``It increases the standard of living.``

In Boca Raton, the debate has been culture vs. commerce.

Jacobson`s proposal to build one of its upscale department stores at the Mizner Park shopping center in Boca Raton has become a political issue.

The community has been divided over whether to allow the Jackson, Mich.- based chain to build an 80,000-square-foot store at Mizner Park. The shopping center was built with the aid of $68 million in bonds approved by voters a few years ago for cultural activities.

The role at the center of controversy might new for Jacobson`s, a conservative chain that Women`s Wear Daily once called a ``silent lion in the retail jungle.``

It`s a lion that walks its own trail. For example, until last year Jacobson`s was not open on Sundays.

It has stores in downtown locations, while most department stores left the downtown long ago. Only two of its 24 stores are in regional malls.

Although it is not well-known in South Florida, it has been here since 1977, or longer than Macy`s, Bloomingdale`s, or the nearby Gardens Mall. The chain opened a 90,000-square-foot store in Palm Beach Gardens in north Palm Beach County, even though its nearest store is in Fort Myers.

The location is unusual. Not many upscale department stores would share a shopping center with a Publix and an Eckerd`s drug store, as it does at the corner of PGA Boulevard and U.S. 1.

In Boca Raton, Jacobson`s would shun the successful Town Center mall in favor of the newcomer, Mizner Park.

``We would stand importantly in Mizner Park, and we might be overshadowed in Town Center,`` said Machtel, who is also a vice president of the company.

Jacobson`s has maintained a department-store tradition that Burdines and Macy`s would envy: full-price merchandise.

The store runs only four sales a year, to clear out unsold merchandise from the previous buying season.

``If you can`t sell regular-priced merchandise at Christmas, when can you sell it?`` Machtel said.

The store also makes another boast that Macy`s, in particular, would like to make.

``We`re financially strong,`` Machtel said. ``We pay our bills.``

Despite the lack of heavy debt, the last few years haven`t been rosy.

The company`s profits peaked in 1986, and profits as a percentage of sales nosedived in 1990 and 1991. Profits dropped from $11.8 million in 1989 to $2.4 million in 1990, and are expected to rebound to $7 million in 1991.

Jacobson`s was walloped by the recession, said Jeffrey Stein, who follows the company for McDonald & Co Investments in Cleveland. The company is centered in Michigan, hard-hit by the slump in the auto industry.

``It`s a very fine company, and they should come back very strongly,`` he said.

Stein said it was probably the drop in profits that persuaded Jacobson`s to finally open its stores on Sundays.

Company spokesman James Batterson said that not being open on Sundays was part of a plan to serve customers better.

``The more you extend hours, the more difficult it is to maintain the high level of customer service,`` he said. But customers eventually demanded it.

Customer service and brand-name merchandise are the store`s trademark, because it doesn`t compete on price.

Gift wrapping is free. There are 56 dressing rooms on the second floor, the women`s clothing department. Saleswomen fetch clothing for the shoppers while they try on clothes.

In the lingerie department, there is little on the racks. Instead, shoppers point to bras on display, and a saleswoman brings what they want from storage. ``We don`t feel a lot of women would like to have their lingerie handled,`` Machtel said.

At Mizner Park, manager Crocker & Co. wants the department store to anchor the shopping center, a group of restaurants, small specialty shops and a movie theater. Jacobson`s would like to open by December on the south end of the center. The city has voted 4-1 to negotiate with the company, and a second vote comes within a month.

Not surprisingly, most of the merchants favor Jacobson`s.

One merchant, however, admits that he`s in the minority, but feels so strongly about it, that he`s running for City Council, partly on the issue.

``Jacobson`s would soak up the parking,`` he said. ``Customers would resist coming here.``

Svekis thinks a Museum of Cartoon Art planned for Mizner Park would be enough of a draw. Instead of Jacobson`s, the city should convince a major museum to exhibit art from its vaults in a center financed by donations.

Another merchant, Gerson Levitt, disagrees that parking is an issue.

``I travel all over the country as a retail consultant; there are no successful areas where parking isn`t a problem,`` said Levitt, co-owner of Ahava, a Jewish gift shop and gallery.

Mizner Park is doing well, but ``when you stand still, you never know what`s going to catch up,`` he said.